10 DIY Valentine ideas

February 10, 2014

  10 DIY Valentine ideas       These are a few of my favorite DIY Valentine craft ideas from around the blogosphere:   “Doh you want to be my Valentine?” from The Wilson World “You’re tops in my book!” bookmark Valentine from Thirty Handmade Days “I dig you!” Valentine from Family Fun Match box Valentines from [...]

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

October 31, 2013

Vampire Dom would like to wish you a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!     Have fun and be safe

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Pumpkin Bread in a Jar Recipe – just in time for fall!

October 16, 2013

      Pumpkin Bread in a Jar Recipe   Ingredients: 1 Cup of Apple Butter 2 Cups of Brown Sugar, packed 1 Cup of Sugar 3 Cups of Flour (or Gluten Free All Purpose Flour) 1 15oz Can of Pumpkin 2 Eggs 1 Tbsp Baking Powder 1 Tsp Cinnamon 2 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice [...]

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DIY – Colorful Shoe Soles

September 27, 2013

DIY - Colorful shoe soles   I think this is a genius idea especially when your kids shoes get all dirty and scuffed. Just paint them!    The tricky thing about painting the rubber on your shoes is keeping the paint on after a while. With a helpful little sealer (you might already have at [...]

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Fall Time Recipes

September 11, 2013

  Although I am not a huge fan of cold weather, I do love holiday foods. Below are two recipes I found on Pinterest that made me super excited for fall! and if you didn’t already know…Starbucks has their pumpkin spice lattes available. Now I am officially ready.      Peek a Boo Pumpkin Pound [...]

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Cute Back to School looks

August 14, 2013

I thought I would show you guys some of my favorite back to school fashion looks for kiddos. I can not wait to dress my little man for school. My husband is an amazing dresser and I know that our son will follow in his footsteps. Some of my favorite places to buy kids/baby clothes [...]

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Mondays with Dom! Special Addition

August 12, 2013

So this Monday I wanted to share with you guys some photos of Dominic on our first vacation as a family. We went to Florida and had an amazing time. We had some very special moments. Sometimes seeing the world through a fresh set of eyes makes you appreciate life.       I will [...]

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Mondays with Dom

August 05, 2013

Ranger Dom! Thank you to Poppa T who recently visited Yellowstone National Park.My little lone Ranger. I just love this picture. Dominic loved the vest, the hat…not so much. But he adored that vest.     As usual, I love comments!  

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DIY – Old shirt bibs

July 31, 2013

DIY – T-SHIRT BIBS I think this idea is genius! Its super easy and something that you can do with old shirts that you don’t want anymore. So its environmentally friendly too! Making bibs out of old T-shirts. No tools needed other than scissors. Simply cut around the neck of the shirt and down the [...]

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5 New Easter Traditions

March 20, 2013

I believe that building traditions strengthens families.  It adds to the “special sauce” that makes your family unique from all others.  Not only that but it is just plan fun to have things to look forward to on a daily, weekly or yearly basis. This year, I have been on the hunt for some new [...]

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Homeschooling = living with intention

March 19, 2013

Among the many benefits of homeschooling that I have been discovering, one of my current favorites is the gift of intentionality.  There is something powerful that happens when the reigns of learning are placed solely in your hands.  Not only is it daunting, but it is also empowering.  Suddenly ALL of life becomes a lesson.  Not that it [...]

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homeschooling: our newest venture

February 25, 2013

You haven’t heard much from me lately.  I’m sorry about that.  I have two reasons, the first of which I’ll share today and the second I’ll probably share soon (no, I’m not pregnant ). Over Christmas break, my husband and I made a game changing decision for our family: we decided to homeschool. Homeschooling is [...]

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Christmas Pretzels: the perfect snack to make with your kids!

December 23, 2012

This just may be the perfect kid friendly Christmas treat around.  Not only is it easy but you can’t really mess it up! You will want the following: -Pretzels (we prefer the stick kind rather than the knotted version as it is easier for small hands to dip) -Melting chocolate -Non stick surface to let [...]

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Put ‘em to work!

August 20, 2012

When Melody approached the topic of how being a mother has changed her home (it is now a mess) and asked for tips and feedback from other moms in her post titled, “I used to have a clean house“, it started a conversation on our facebook page about what we do in our home to involve [...]

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Fortunately / Unfortunately: our thankfulness game

August 15, 2012

Back in my teaching days (I used to teach second grade) I stumbled upon a fun picture book called “Fortunately.” The main character is taken on a wild adventure filled with fortune and misfortune.  It goes something like this: Fortunately, Ned was invited to a surprise party. Unfortunately, the party was a thousand miles away. [...]

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The opposite game & why it doesn’t work in our house (wink-wink;)

July 18, 2012

  If you want your kids to do something, turn it into a game.  It’s simple but the best ideas usually are right? Want an easy game idea?  Read on. Its called the “opposite game” and the rules are simple: agree to say the opposite of what you mean. For example: Me: Ashlyn, I don’t [...]

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Top 5 kids’ audio picks for road trips

July 02, 2012

Earlier this month our family took a 7+ hour road trip together to the coast of Washington.  In many ways this distance seems like small beans compared to the times we trek from Northern Idaho to Minnesota or Southern California to visit family.  However, any extended car seat time can leave little ones (and their parents) longing for [...]

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Fun family games: a Milliwik game giveaway

March 28, 2012

I don’t know about you but our family loves games. Our game closet is bursting at the seams with old classics like Hi Ho Cherry-O, games that take hours to play such as The Farming Game and fun strategy games such as Ticket to Ride and The Settlers of Catan.  I look for good deals when I visit the thrift store or yard sales and love the fun of finding a few family favorite.  I have even found fun uses for games that go unused such as this popular blog post showing a easy DYI craft project using an old scrabble board.  As our family grows, I have found that it can be challenging to involve everyone in game play.  Monopoly with our older two gets saved for the younger kid’s nap time and Dominion gets pulled out when adult friends visit and our children entertain themselves by building towers with and bouncing on our couch cushions downstairs (true story).  It is rare to find a quality game that we can all enjoy together despite our varying age and ability levels.

Because of this I was intrigued to learn about Milliwik’s Dance Charades game which combines the creative interaction of charades with the fun expression of dance all within an open age format.

How to play: You have a 40 second song to charade as many items as you can. However, you can’t just charade the item, you have to make it into a dance move!  The other players try to guess what you are dancing and you get a point for every one they guess right.  The other players also have purple tokens and they can reward you up to three token points during your turn.  After the song is over, you collect your points and tokens and add up your total score and put it next to your dance name (i.e. white thunder, sizzle, etc) on the score pad.  A game like this is perfect to modify for younger players because let’s face it, kids LOVE to dance!

Another fun and unique game offered by Milliwik is Splashimals®.

Splashimals®  float on the water, stick to the bath wall, are easy for small hands to hold and help your kids with their reading skills.  You can match them up, play memory, or mix them up to create new crazy animals like the tur-key (picture shown below).  Splahsimals have received some impressive recommendations and press including a feature in babytalk magazine and Nickelodeon’s “toys that teach” feature.

Doesn’t it seem fun to be a game creator where your job is to help others have fun?This is just what the owners of Milliwik do!  In their own words,

We love to have fun. We will most likely challenge you to a card-throwing contest with our foam cards, a dance off with our game dance charades, or a battle of the wits with our new game laughing stock.  Our end goal is to make you laugh through fun activities and games because that is what keeps us happy.  We love to have fun. We will most likely challenge you to a card-throwing contest with our foam cards, a dance off with our game dance charades, or a battle of the wits with our new game laughing stock.Our end goal is to make you laugh through fun activities and games because that is what keeps us happy.

At Mom 4 Life we have been working behind the scenes for the last several months to make some big improvements to our website. I am excited to say that those changes are nearing completion.  However, as you may have noticed, we have dramatically slowed down the number of new products we have been adding to the site in order to best focus on our site improvement project.  Durring this time, I spoke with David, the CFO (Chief Fun Operator) about his company Milliwik and the products that he and his wife have worked to develop.  Despite the fact that now is not the right time for us to consider adding their products to Mom 4 Life, I was excited to learn of their desire to take their company to the next level of sales.  They have entered a contest sponsored by WalMart called “Get on the Shelf” and are looking to increase sales so that their company can provide a sustainable income for their family.  I was happy to help spread the word about their innovative games (such as the ones mentioned above as well as the many others offered on their website) and give you the chance to win either Dance Charades or Splashimals as well as the opportunity to purchase a game at an amazing 50% off discount.


If you would like to win either Dance Charades or Splashimals: simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below (you must be on our blog to enter so be sure to click over if you are reading this via Google Readers or an email).
In addition to the chance of winning the giveaway, I would encourage you to take advantage of their amazing limited time 50% off special on a few of their select games here by simply entering the code “mom4life” durring checkout. While you are there, don’t forget to show your support for this creative company by voting for them to get “On the Shelf” in WalMart!

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3 Ideas for creating great family dinnertime discussions

March 12, 2012

When our children were very young I remember discussions that my husband and I would have about what kind of family atmosphere we wanted in our home.  Some of these talks centered around dinner time conversations.  It was a goal of ours to place high value on having meaningful dinnertime discussions.  Over time we have experimented with different approaches [...]

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Merry Christmas!

December 21, 2011

Our two oldest kids are home from school and we have been really loving the lazy days that provides us.  Thanks to Pinterest, I have been inspired with some fun new ideas, crafts and traditions.  I will share some of my favorites below and encourage you to see all of the ideas I saved here. [...]

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Do Together Craft: Easy Wreath Ornaments

November 28, 2011

Christmas is rapidly approaching.  Usually, this is the time of year that I bust out the paper crafts with my kids, but this year I thought we could make some ornaments. Enter these adorable, easy, and super cheap wreaths.  This is truly a do-together craft, as some steps the kids can do, and some steps the adults or older kids have to do, such as the hot glueing.  Even better, these little wreaths are fully customizable.  If you have four kids doing this craft, you will have four completely different wreaths.  Even better, if you are a sewer or crafter, I can nearly guarantee you have the materials needed around your house.  Can you say, “Scrap busting time!” If you aren’t a crafter don’t worry!  The materials for this craft are very inexpensive.

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Steering Wheel Lists

March 01, 2011

Each morning I drive Hunter to school.  The drive takes about 30 minutes.  Although it is not ideal to have to drive so far, we have discovered many useful things that can be done during our drive time, one of which is homework.  Each week Hunter’s teacher sends home a newsletter with his weekly spelling [...]

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Good Gifts for Your Children

December 22, 2010

By Angela Gifford (our Customer Service Assistant and blogger at Let’s Talk About Boys) Our tree decorating time this year was a little disjointed. This is the first time ever we haven’t done the whole tree as a family, but our work schedules just didn’t make it possible. One night I waited up as long [...]

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Things to do in Northern Idaho with Kids this summer

June 22, 2010

If you have kids and live in Coeur d’ Alene or Sandpoint, Idaho (or the surrounding areas), you are in luck.  There is plenty to do this summer! Thank you to the moms who provided me with this comprehensive list of things to do.  If you see something you want to do, you may wish [...]

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